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Author Archives: Ryan Pfeil

Ryan Pfeil

This is a blog for southern Oregonians to check in on all things geek. Sci-fi, history, comics, movies, video/photo and anything else that would have gotten you shut in a locker in high school. Have fun.

Here’s how some of the first few lines of my new book go: “I grew up in Chagrin Falls, which is a small town, an outer suburb of Cleveland. It was originally a mill town in the 1800s, and a paper-bag factory was still going when I was growing up. They used to dump their [...]

My childhood science fiction education was very rich and thorough, thanks to my father. His teaching methodology was simple enough. You probably have movie/book enthusiasts in your life who do something similar: 1) Ask me if I’ve seen/read something. 2) If I haven’t, put it in front of me ASAP. He did this with books [...]

This can’t be coincidence, the books I’ve been reading. The words my kid’s hearing, the art she’s been seeing. For the past three nights straight, I have introduced My daughter to a man pseudonym’d Dr. Seuss. See, a relative’s moving, limiting what he took. And he happened, by chance, to find this old book. A [...]

It’s been more than nine years since the dark house in the woods burned down. Still, it haunts me. This is one of those stories where you have to have faith that I’m not messing with you. I can’t offer exhibits or evidence beyond the few photos that I took of the house in Colorado’s [...]

I tuned into the pilot episode of “Gotham” with zero apprehension last night. Why would I? Conceptually, the Batman origin story TV series had me at hello. “Let’s not just go back to the beginning,” the storytellers seemed to say in the ads. “We need to loiter awhile. “But this origin story needs to be [...]

Here’s a basic story premise for you, one I’m sure you could tie to a number of books or movies: “A family moves into a new house and begins to discover things about it.” You’ve already thought of one or two I’m sure. “Poltergeist” is probably in there. “The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe,” [...]

This is the eighth installment in a series of entries about the arrival of my first child. Dear Bethany, Running clears my head, especially when I can do it close to the ocean. Especially when it’s morning. The lazy hiss of the saltwater flushes out the usual clogs of to-do lists and what-if treatises. The [...]

This is the seventh installment in a series of entries about the arrival of my first child. Dear Bethany, Your great-grandma thought your grandma was crazy. I was the crux of it — newborn, helpless, unable to escape her grasp as she read me Beatrix Potter stories about a young rabbit who doesn’t do what [...]

The Rubbermaid tote makes my small home office all the more cramped. It’s heavy, too, a sturdy block of plastic weighed down by contents that could be a door stop for iron gates. I’ve scanned through them a few times: worn letters, photographs, a few sketches, a lunch menu, sheets of 6-cent stamps, newspapers. It’s [...]

This is the sixth installment in a series of entries about the arrival of my first child. Dear Bethany, Congratulations: You’ve just set the record for the youngest child ever to be grounded. Take a bow. And don’t think I can’t see you rolling your eyes either, kid. The “What To Expect” app says you [...]

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Ryan Pfeil

This is a blog for southern Oregonians to check in on all things geek. Sci-fi, history, comics, movies, video/photo and anything else that would have gotten you shut in a locker in high school. Have fun. Read Full